Chapter 8
The look in Lizzy's eyes when he pulled her up to board with the First Class passengers was worth every Pound he paid to upgrade her seat. "I could get used to this," she said as she snuggled into the large seat with lots of leg room. "You're going to spoil me." she added as she accepted a glass of champagne from the flight attendant.
"I like spoiling you. Thank you for letting me." he replied with a smile as he lifted her hand to kiss her knuckles again. She giggled.
The rest of the flight passed comfortably. When they passed out of security at the Hartford airport, her dad, Jane and Chuck were waiting for them.
"Lizzy bear!" her dad yelled as he enveloped her in a big hug. "Welcome home." he turned to William, "Good to see you again William. Thank you for bringing my Lizzy bear home to me."
"My pleasure sir, my pleasure." He went over to shake hands with Chuck and Jane. "Good to see you again. Thanks for coming to get us. I could have hired a car."
"Nonsense, what are friends for. Your room is made up and we've even got a car you can drive while you're here. It's so good to have you back stateside. How long are you staying?"
"At least through the wedding. After that," he glanced at Lizzy "we will have to see."
Jane let out a little squeal of delight. It had made her sad when William left after graduation because she knew Lizzy was heartbroken, even if she would never say it out loud. She had always thought she saw a spark between the two and was so happy that she had encouraged Chuck to keep William informed about how Lizzy was doing. This was even better than she could have hoped for.
They spent the hour drive back to Meryton talking about wedding plans. They had three weeks until the wedding and there was still plenty to do. William watched with pleasure as the sisters discussed table toppers (silk flowers in silver vases), DJ requests (NO chicken dances!) and bridesmaids dresses (peach with no lace!). "Soon." he reminded himself. "Don't rush her. She needs this time with her family. But soon."
The next few weeks flew past. Most of the time seemed to be consumed with wedding planning. Lizzy had to go for dress fittings as her dress had been ordered only from measurements and some alterations needed to be done to fit her petite frame.
The two of them snuck away from time to time to spend time alone. They toured museums and went hiking. They had quiet dinners, just the two of them at out of the way dives and at the historic "First and Last Tavern" in Hartford. William was looking for just the perfect place to "pop the question". He settled on a park overlooking the Connecticut River that they had hiked last week.
He and Chuck drove out one afternoon and set up a small table, two chairs and solar lights. Jane had driven into town to pick up a catered dinner for two. Chuck stayed out at the site and waited for Jane to arrive. They set up everything, then wandered off to an area nearby where they could see the set up, but would not be seen when William brought Lizzy out.
Shortly after they saw the headlights from William's car, they heard Lizzy saying "I'm not dressed for hiking William. It's too dark for a hike." She went silent as they rounded a bend in the trail and the table, chairs and lights came into view.
Lizzy stood there with her eyes as big as saucers and her mouth open. "I did not see this coming." she whispered.
"Good. I like surprising you" whispered William as he kissed her knuckles.
"Are you hungry? The chipmunks have catered dinner in for us." He could faintly hear the chipmunks laughing in the bushes.
She looked at him as she had never done before. He usually had trouble reading peoples expressions, but not this time. Love. That was undeniable. Love was written all over her face.
"Shall we?" he motioned her forward.
"Um, how did you...?"
"Well trained chipmunks. Thank you chipmunks!" he called out to the bushes.
"You're welcome!" came back a duet reply in falsetto voices that even Lizzy could determine belonged to her sister and her fiancee. A minute later she heard a car start up and drive away.
"Now. Dinner?" William said as he seated her at the table. He started to unload the caterer's box. He poured them wine and set out the entrees (Chicken Kiev and green beans). Lizzy was very quiet throughout dinner. He could almost see the gears turning. After dessert (Creme brulee) he gently pulled her to her feet and led her over to the edge of the solar lights, near the rim of the bluff. He turned her to face him and got down on one knee.
The chipmunks were not present to hear his speech, but it was well received as it bore no relation at all to the infamous book proposal that brought them together in the first place. She was nearly bouncing with delight as he slid the ring on her finger. "So that shopping trip we took to look for a gift for your sister was as bogus as could be. I should have figured it out when you asked the salesman to determine my ring size, saying you thought Georgiana would wear the same size!" she said.
She didn't mind a little subterfuge. She liked nice surprises like this. She would have said "I didn't see this coming," but she had been hoping for it since they returned stateside and she liked to think she did seen this coming; or at least something like this. She couldn't stop smiling.
They packed up the table, chairs and leftover food and slowly drove back to civilization. He told her the story of going to her father to, not so much to ask for his permission, as to offer him the courtesy of telling him what his plans were. Mr. Bender had made him promise to bring Lizzy back to visit at least once a year, a not at all onerous promise to make. She wasn't sure she liked the idea of her dad knowing about the proposal before she did. At least she was sure that her mother didn't know about it yet.
The subterfuge that he hoped Lizzy never knew about was that his Dad did in fact contact his friend in the company in Kensington. Although he never asked his friend directly to hire his hoped yet-to-be daughter-in-law, just the mention of his hopes may have skewed the decision to hire her. More importantly, William knew she had gotten the job before she did and thus planned his proposal event for this evening.
On the way back to town, they discussed what would happen if she didn't get the job in Kensington. He blandly replied that there were probably 20 labs in London that she would be qualified to work at and so thought she should not borrow trouble by worrying about that just yet. She couldn't see his smirk on the drive home in the dark.
The next topic of discussion was when to announce their engagement. Obviously Jane and Chuck already knew about it but she was reticent to announce it before the wedding as she didn't want to upstage the wedding couple. Here was his next surprise. William told her that since Jane and Chuck were in on the planning, they had suggested themselves that they announce the engagement during the toasts at the wedding. Lizzy would never had allowed that, except that it was the bride and groom suggesting it and she knew her sister would be happy for her.
The final topic of discussion was a wedding date. Neither wanted a long engagement as they felt they had waited long enough to get to this point. "Escape to Gretna Green with me?" William jokingly suggested as he waggled his eyebrows at her. "Bingley gets a finders fee if we do."
"In the states, we elope to Las Vegas," playfully replied Lizzy , waggling her eyebrows.
"Split the difference and have a civil ceremony here, overlooking the river on a sunny Saturday afternoon when Jane and Chuck return from their honeymoon at the end of June? Same caterer even?"
"Sounds wonderful to me," Lizzy replied.
The next day they were working on the invites when Lizzy went online to look up a friend's address that had been emailed to her previously. All of a sudden, Lizzy let out a shriek, causing William to look up at her. "I got it! I got it!" she started jumping up and down. "I got the job in Kensington. They want me to start in September! I can't believe it!" William pasted a look of surprise on his face because of course, he DID see THIS coming.
Jane's wedding was the following week and went off without a hitch. Their mother was not quite as bad as the proverbial "Momzilla" and Jane was the exact opposite of a "Bridezilla" (and of course if there was such a thing as a "Groomzilla", Chuck was the exact opposite too) so everything went according to plan. There was a loud round of applause when Chuck announced William and Lizzy's engagement. Especially when he pulled her to her feet and kissed her soundly in front of all present. Her mother exclaimed "Well, I didn't see that coming!" She never understood why Jane, Chuck, Lizzy and William all burst out laughing hysterically.
Planning for their own wedding was a bit of a rush, but since Lizzy refused to stress out about the petty details, and William had the bank to almost wave a magic wand and make anything happen, the catering, music, cake, officiant, transportation to and from the site all came together smoothly. Wedding planning was easy peasy when you were more focused on the marriage than the wedding, she thought.
Lizzy had to sit her mother down and tell her the lay of the land before she started interfering in the planning. She allowed her mom to give the rehearsal dinner the night before the ceremony, once Jane and Chuck had returned from their honeymoon. She let her mom make it as grand as she wanted, only insisting that it all be over by 11 PM so everyone could get ready for the wedding the next day.
Lizzy took her friend Charlotte with her dress shopping. With a very short time frame, there was no time to have a dress custom made. Luckily, Hartford had a few shops that had dress samples already made that just needed to be altered a bit to fit Lizzy's tiny frame. She thought William would like the dress she picked. It was old fashioned, something her Grandmother might have worn. It had a lace bodice, a sheer over-skirt and a short train. Prim, but not prudish. Elegant, but not pretentious. It only needed to be altered by bringing the waist of the skirt up by two inches and the seamstress promised she would have it done in time for the wedding.